Slovakia: Kosice Praise For Valencia

Slovakian champions Delta Kosice are a much better side in the EuroLeague Women when they play away from home.

That's the view of two of Delta's leading players after the club was mauled 98-57 by high-flying Spanish side Ros Casares Valencia, who are equal second in Group B on 13 points.

Delta simply had no answer to the skill, power and strength of their visitors - and Luisa Michulkova and Hana Jendrichovska were the first to admit their inadequacies.

Hana Jendrichovska

Michulkova said she could not understand why Delta played so well in Valencia but so badly on Tuesday night.

"We played very bad in both defence and offence which meant we had no chance," she said.

"We talked about the "dangerous" players of Valencia before the game but all their players were very dangerous. Their shooting was nearly faultless.

"They showed us how to play basketball.

"We made too many mistakes in defence and this left a Valencia player open for an easy shot.

"I am very sad. I do not know why we lost by so many points and why we do not play good at home. We play much better away from Slovakia and we have much better results in those games."

Jendrichovska, who was Delta's top scorer with 15 points, said Valencia were a class above her side.

"They play in another dimension. Valencia is always better by 20 points when we play them," she said.

"It is simply not possible to beat Valencia with the players we have." Jendrichovska singled out US forward Chamique Holdsclaw, Spanish international forward Amaya Valdemoro and Australia center Suzy Batkovic as special.

"These players have extra class so we did not have a chance.

"Batkovic, in particular, is very strong and our centres had no chance under the basket against her.

"We only lost by six points in Valencia but everything changed today.

"We had a big problem to go inside or to shoot from outside today because Valencia played very good defence.

"Valencia won the match in the first half and did not play for 100% after the interval but the margin still went up."

But Jendrichovska said her team-mates had to take heart from the massive loss.

"Games like this are very important for us," she said.

"We have still to learn a lot and this European competition is a big school for us.

"I hope that our fans are clever enough to see a big gap between us and Valencia and that they understand that we played as well as we could."